Love Addicts Anonymous - Liz G Shares Her Story

Love Addicts Anonymous - Liz G Shares Her Story

What drives someone to seek a life without addictive relationships and patterns? This conversation follows Liz G (Elizabeth Gilbert) as she talks frankly about love addiction, codependency and the 12-step recovery that’s helping her rebuild her life. You’ll hear Liz describe her memoir, *All the Way to the River*, a raw account of her love story with her friend-turned-partner Rhea Elias, who was dying of cancer and returned to heroin and cocaine.

Liz doesn’t sugar-coat anything: she calls herself a "blackout sex and love addict" and a "world-class Olympic long-distance codependent", and shares how her need for Rhea’s love became its own drug. The episode looks at how love addiction works in practice, especially using people as stimulants or sedatives to regulate a nervous system that feels unmanageable.

Liz explains, "My history of sex and love addiction is that I have used people as drugs," and she describes finding Love Addicts Anonymous and daily 12-step meetings as her first real "ray of hope". There’s powerful discussion of surrender and rock bottom, including Liz’s terrifying moment of caregiver collapse when she seriously considered ending Rhea’s life, and the spiritual nudge that made her reach out for help instead.

Her definition of surrender as reaching "the end of your power" may hit home for anyone clinging to a relationship that’s destroying them. For those curious about practical recovery, Liz talks about emotional sobriety, spiritual practice, long-term sexual abstinence as part of her programme, and a four-page sober dating plan ready for the future. She also reflects on innocence in addiction, the restoration of dignity, and what it means to stand on her own two feet at last.

If you’ve ever wondered whether your relationships feel more like a compulsion than a choice, this episode might be the nudge to ask, "What curriculum have I signed up for—and am I ready to stop missing it?"